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ok alphys was a character ahead of her time and too good for this damn fandom honestly. she isn't some evil gaslighting lying cringey manipulator who only exists as comic relief for the love of god look at her with eyes less poisoned by cynicism and irony. she is a love letter to... well, a lot of things. a love letter to "cringey" people, to video game fans, to people who try to drown their sadness in fiction. she's so achingly relatable to so many of us that it really feels like toby knows his demographic like the back of his hand. we've all met someone like alphys. maybe we are that someone- awkward, nerdy, can't get over their past mistakes, terrible at phone calls, far more eloquent online than in person, only wants to make people like them to distract them from the fact that they don't like themself. normally, this character archetype is the butt of a great deal of jokes- just a gross nerd who needs to touch grass. but alphys is different. she is, as i said, a love letter. she is one of the best-developed and most complex characters in the game. her nerdiness isn't "fixed" or mocked, it's celebrated. her unabashed love for her interests and her 100% attitude is a big reason why undyne loves her. games, especially in 2015 and before, are not often so genuinely kind to characters like alphys! and in deltarune, too- alphys is still a nerd, despite not being nearly as traumatized as her undertale counterpart. her rambling about shows she loves is a constant across all universes, a fundamental and important and good part of who she is.

and i just think that's very kind, and very important.

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Minecraft movie poster redraw (no this is not a 3d model)

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Look at my undertale art boy

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Big announcement from Charlie and Blitz about the future of the Hellaverse. Premiered at LVL UP and posted to youtube April 25, 2025.

[source]

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shayma escaped gaza before the crossing closed and has been struggling to care for her family of 16 in egypt. rent is skyrocketing, and now her brother needs help funding his master's degree. she just lost her childhood friend and her friend's family, she needs support right now.

she didn't ask me to post this, i just wanna show her there's still people out there who care. please help her

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This powerful image captures the face of a wounded Palestinian woman whose hijab is soaked in blood—likely her own or that of a loved one. Her eyes tell a story of unimaginable pain and strength in the face of loss. She stands in a chaotic hospital hallway, surrounded by others in distress. As an oppressed and weak woman from Gaza, I see myself in her. I, too, have suffered greatly—my baby, Qais, was injured in the war, and the hospital refused to treat him because we cannot pay. Please, I beg you to help us. Your donation can provide the medicine and care Qais urgently needs.

Life in Gaza is unbearable for women like me.

1. I wait in line for two hours just to bring food back to our tent - food that is never enough.

2. I clean the shoes of strangers on the street-just to earn a few coins for Qais's medicine.

3. We were turned away from the hospital-they said no money, no treatment, even for a child as young as Qais.

I carry this pain in silence, but I cannot bear it alone anymore. The woman in this picture used her hijab to try and save her son's life. I am doing everything I can to save mine. But without help, I fear I will lose him too. Please, Donate anything you can-no matter how small. Even a few dollars could mean a meal, a medicine dose, or a chance for Qais to live. Share this, speak up, and help us survive.

Donate Now Here

Please donate for Qais's treatment, Donate Here

Please stop ✋🚨 you're the only hope to save a child😔😭

Vetted by @gazavetters , my number verified on the list is ( #64 )🍉🇵🇸

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I wish allistic people understood that infodumping about a special interest is a lot closer to baring your soul than sharing fun facts

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A problem I have when reading romance novels is I cannot empathize with disliking someone but finding them attractive regardless. If I dislike someone I'm like "You are like a wadded up ball of sweaty socks and I want you to burn in a pyre, undying and screaming for days"

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I can’t get over this lmaooo

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“Are you happy, in this relationship?”

The protagonist’s entire body stilled. “Of course.”

“Really? Because I’m not.”

The two of them were in the most romantic setting the protagonist could think of – a little boat winding lazily down a gentle river, shaded by lush forest on both sides. It was bathed in the soft golds and pinks of early evening.

“I can be better,” the protagonist said.

But their soulmate only smiled. “That’s impossible, dear. You’re already perfect.”

The protagonist’s chest tightened as though boulders were piling atop it.

“You’re smart,” the soulmate went on. “You’re kind. You get my sense of humour. And you have this way of viewing everything … [Protagonist], it’s breathtaking to see the world from your eyes.”

“Then why are we having this conversation?”

“You’re my perfect puzzle piece. The matching shoe … all that dumb stuff they said about soulmates. But this …” They gestured to the romantic scenery. “I wasn’t meant for this.”

The protagonist stared at the slow churning water. “Are you breaking up with me?”

The soulmate gave an infuriating shrug. “I don’t know.”

“Well, alright then.” The protagonist laughed, tight and bitter. “Just tell me when you decide whether or not you’re going to ruin my life.”

“See, this is what I hate about having a soulmate. About being a soulmate. Why do I have to be this wonderful, amazing thing for someone else? The thing you need to live, apparently. Why can’t I just be a person?”

“I never asked you to stop being a person.”

“I’m not making myself clear.” The soulmate sighed. “Just, doesn’t it strike you as odd that they never presented this soulmate thing to us as a choice? Like, of course we were destined to find each other. Of course we’d want to be together forever.”

“Well yeah. That’s what a soulmate is.”

“You’re never just … absolutely furious that no one ever told us there were other ways to be happy? That we didn’t have to do this?”

“You’re still not making sense. What could be better than a soulmate?”

“I don’t know. Dinner parties. Family road trips. A bunch of friends sitting around a campfire, getting high together ’til the sun comes up.”

“Those are all things the two of us can do together.”

“But they’re also things we can do with everyone else. Fuck, [Protagonist]. Give me one reason why I have to value one person over literally everybody else in my life. Why do people always insist that I need a soulmate?” Their eyes glistened, and their voice was hitched. Almost pleading. “Sometimes I feel like I’m getting fucking brainwashed.”

“Right. Because loving your own soulmate is brainwashing.”

The soulmate leveled a stare at them. “Do you even love me?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re good at hiding it. And you never take it out on me. Which, in my own way, I love you for. But I’ll see the dark circles under your eyes. And the moments when you go really quiet. And the mornings where we wake up together, and I can tell that it actually hurts you to talk to me.”

“[Soulmate] …”

“Tell me right now that you’re happy, and I’ll believe you.” Their eyes bore into the protagonist. “I’ll never question you on it again.”

The protagonist paused. They had what they wanted, right?

The soulmate seemed to imagine an alternative life for themself full of people and community. But in the protagonist’s darkest hours of the night, they imagined …

The mud soft beneath their boots, the invigorating rain splashing their face. The smell of rich, dark soil. The sound of wind in the treeline. Of twittering, of rustling, of life. The budding spring branches, reaching like children’s hands up into the infinite sky.

The protagonist, alone. Just them and the wide-open world. It wasn’t lonely, never lonely. It was a freedom, the likes of which they’d never actually known.

But still.

The protagonist peered steadily at the person they’d always been fated for.

I can’t be the fuckup who couldn’t make it work even with my own soulmate. 

“I’m happy,” the protagonist lied.  

—-

Loosely inspired by this post by @aromantic-spinda

A-spec stories taglist:

@feline17ff , @piept , @doublericenobeans , @vioqueenofmushrooms , @pigeonwhumps , @thelazywitchphotographer 

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The way that exclusionists treat ace and aro people often reminds me of how the average person would treat me when I started being open as non-binary. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a thousand times, we are not enemies. Our experiences do not oppose each other, they are intertwined. If you’re ace, if you’re aromantic, if you’re any variation thereupon; your home is here. You belong here, too. You are beautiful, and powerful; and you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone. You are a valued part of this community.

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Being on the asexual spectrum and living in a society that enforces compulsory sexuality is so weird. I don’t have a partner, have never been in a serious relationship, and I’m not currently craving one. I’m especially not craving casual sex. But I keep feeling like I should. I have friends who keep encouraging me to “get laid” even though the idea of having sex with someone I don’t have a strong emotional connection with disgusts me. I know it comes from a supportive place, but it feels alienating sometimes. The people in my life, however, don’t try to pressure me and encourage me to prioritize my happiness over societal expectations. But those expectations from society are difficult to escape. They percolate into my self-concept in insidious ways. One of the worst parts about the pressure I feel is that I go through periods sometimes where I force myself to think about sex or imagine myself in sexual situations. I’ve even forced myself to watch porn on several occasions. I will say that my feelings about sex (concerning my participation in it) are ambivalent. Depending on the day, I can feel favorable, indifferent, or repulsed. For a time, I really only gave myself grace on the favorable days. On the indifferent or repulsed days, I compulsively consumed sexual content and forced myself to masturbate to try to feel “normal”, to try to get the feeling of genuine enthusiasm back once a favorable day had passed. During these times, I would go through life feeling anxious, ashamed, and even downright nauseous. I now realize that what I was doing was violating my own boundaries. I wasn’t consenting to what I was doing with myself. Even though I thought I was because I was “supposed” to want it. This realization has made me think about how compulsory sexuality as a systemic concept is antithetical to consent. We often think of consent as a contract between two or more individuals, but what about consent within ourselves? We can have partners who are perfectly respectful and attuned to our needs, and we can have sexual relationships with ourselves. But are we truly consenting if we are letting compulsory sexuality say yes for us?

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There's this cognitive dissonance where despite asexuals being such a tiny part of the population, 'justifying' compulsory sexuality because there aren't 'enough' of us to change the idea every human is a sexual being even when we're living proof that's not the case, there's a constant need to reinforce it even though it's the 'norm'.

I keep noticing the constant affirmations we have to keep telling non-ace people in conversations and spaces originally meant for ourselves, that asexual partners can fail to meet the sexual needs of non-ace people, that sex is a part of the human experience, that our needs aren't the same as most people, even though cisheterosexual society reaffirms this on the regular (for cishet people) and ace spaces are essentially the only spaces that exist to decentre this (and no, monasteries don't count). We have to keep distancing ourselves from sexual puritanism because it's assumed to be innate to us even though the lawmakers and politicians controlling sex in media, birth control, abortion, marriage rights and the idea of sexuality in society are not asexual. We have to remind people we're safe as if our little to no sexual attraction and/or activity is inherently a danger even though puritans harm us too because they don't support asexuality either. Whenever there's an ace of multiple identities there are instant calls to remind people not to desexualise, infantilise or sanitise marginalised people and remind people of the 'inherent' sexuality of these groups, that '[label here] fucks too!1' even though, representation for gay, lesbian, bi, pan, trans, disabled and POC on mass has rarely included asexuality in the first place. Despite being a teeny part of the human population, being 'abnormal', 'gender ideology' and a 'chronically online tumblr teen' phenomenon that has no real meaning in the real world, it's strong enough to cause this level of defensiveness. Some people are deeply threatened, disturbed and uncomfortable by a tiny minority solely on the basis that it's visible and existing.

And this is why I call asexuality queer and will keep doing so and idc who's pissed about it lol

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I have devastating news. I’m Musab Ahmed, and for no clear reason, GoFundMe disabled the contact that was responsible for receiving and transferring the funds from my campaign to me, starting April 21st, 2025. Even though I had raised 24% of my goal, I was unable to access any of the money I worked so hard to collect. We tried reaching out to them multiple times, but they haven’t responded, and now I’ve been forced to start over from scratch.

I’m not exaggerating when I say I nearly had a heart attack from the shock and stress — especially after all the hope and effort I poured into that campaign.

Here is the link to my new fundraiser. Please, if you can donate or even just share it, your support would mean the world to me. I urgently need the funds, as I still haven’t been able to undergo the second surgery for my shoulder, and things are getting harder by the day.

I’ve been verified by @gazavetters

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yk, ever since i found the term of "asexuality" i have felt so certain of myself. It was so empowering to know that there wasnt anything wrong with me like so many taught me. I don't understand how people dont like it.

Im not trying to be condisending or anything but can someone please explain? like, what do you mean you had to "come to terms with it"?

PLEASE! i AM NOT trying to be in ANY WAY rude or anything! everyone's experience is valid and i love that you are finding or have found yourself. im just trying to understand and be open-minded to all experiences!!

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"Aro/Ace person gets given a love potion" story but instead of them being immune or whatever, it DOES work, and they realize IMMEDIATELY that they've been fed a love potion because this feeling is so wrong and foreign but everyone keeps laughing off the idea of it being a love potion because "they were probably just a late bloomer" or "no, you just finally found the right person!" and it's just a horror story about how no one believes them even though they know, they KNOW this isn't right and they can't stand it.

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Ever had a really bad interview for a retail job where you have to act aggressively enamored with the company and the idea of having to get a job there, as if you would even be there at all if you didn't absolutely have to be?

That's what compulsory sexuality feels like.